<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Francis’ Childhood by shennyjohn12</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29990562">Francis’ Childhood</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/shennyjohn12/pseuds/shennyjohn12'>shennyjohn12</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Malcolm Docs [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Malcolm in the Middle</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>ADHD Francis, ADHD Reese, Absolutely NO incest wtf is wrong with some of y’all, Autistic Malcolm, Dyslexic Reese, Francis cares about his brothers even if it doesn’t seem like it all the time, Good Brother Francis, Undiagnosed Autistic Reese</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 18:29:21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,081</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29990562</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/shennyjohn12/pseuds/shennyjohn12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A few scenes about Francis and his brothers.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Malcolm Docs [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2202993</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Francis’ Childhood</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Thank you for reading. I was thinking of the next part either focusing on Reese (again) or Malcolm. Comment if you want one specifically, idk which I’ll do first.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Francis was eight years old when he was diagnosed with ADHD, and after that the dominoes fell into place for the rest of the family. But for that first three years, before anyone realized his brothers were also neurodivergent, he was in hell. Lois was more understanding of his short attention span, but school was becoming harder. His classes were having less games and activities and more silent readings. He couldn’t sit at a desk for an hour, let alone a day. And his mom refused to put him into a special class while his teacher refused to acknowledge his diagnosis. The one thing he knew he was good at was being a good brother, and so he was. </p><p> </p><p>=•=</p><p> </p><p>     “Hey, Francis. Can you read this for me?” Reese asked, pointing down at the book his second grade class was reading. Francis nodded, even if he wasn’t very good at reading, but he always wanted to help his little brothers out. Besides fifth grade readings made his books look easy. “The words keep moving around and you’re always good at figuring them out.” The boy explained while he rocked back and forth on his toes.</p><p>     “They move?”</p><p>     “Uh huh. Like little ants crawling around in the page. I don’t know how you can read them.” </p><p>     “Maybe you should tell Mom when she gets home from work.” Francis suggested before he started reading a fairy tale to Reese. It was always like this, Francis helped Reese with his work while Malcolm read beside them. Though it was never his homework, just some book his teachers would let him borrow. Their babysitter normally sat wandered between them and Dewey, checking up on them every so often. Hal would come home after they arrived back from school, but Dewey needed a sitter most of the day anyway. </p><p> </p><p>=•=</p><p> </p><p>     “Hal! We’re back.” Lois called from the front door, carrying Malcolm while Reese was wrapped around her leg and being picked up with each step. Hal came to greet her with Dewey in his arms, and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before looking over the boys. Francis had also stayed home but was currently destroying something while his parents weren’t paying attention. “We need to talk about the boys.”</p><p>     “I guess they gave you the results?” Hal inquired. Lois nodded and set Malcolm in the ground. Hal bent down to Reese and started to pry his hands off of his wife. “Reese, why don’t you go find Francis. I bet he’d love to play with you.”</p><p>     “No, he’s just going to hit me.”</p><p>     “He won’t hit you. I heard him say this morning he wanted to apologize and give you a hug.” </p><p>     “Really?” Reese asked, looking happily over towards their room. Quickly he ran off, with Malcolm following behind him. </p><p>     “That will keep him busy. Now, what happened?”</p><p>     “Well, they’re done with their testing. Only Reese has ADHD.” Lois said, setting her purse down on the side table. “There’s more though. He’s also dyslexic. It’s a good thing he told us about his reading difficulties now, rather than have him fail.”</p><p>     “What about Malcolm? Does he also have ADHD?”</p><p>     “About Malcolm, he’s autistic. The doctor said that’s probably why he’s bad with other kids. Or is obsessed with those robot cartoons.” Lois gestured towards the television. They continued talking about the boys and their diagnoses, along with Francis’. After Reese started getting similar notes to the ones Francis used to get, Hal thought it would be best to get both of their middle children tested. He didn’t want them to go without the resources their older brother got. They talked about how to help them with school work, whether or not they could afford a tutor to help Reese with his English assignments. They couldn’t, but they wanted to provide their boys with whatever they could afford. </p><p> </p><p>=•=</p><p> </p><p>     “Hey Malcolm, whatcha doing?” Francis asked, climbing through their window caked in mud. Malcolm looked over to his older brother and smiled. </p><p>     “Look at this chemistry set Dad got me! Isn’t it awesome. I’m trying to figure out how I can make some stuff explode, but it seems like the most I can do is build a stupid volcano.” He said, flowing into a speech about which was the best volcano on Earth. Francis just listened while he got changed into a fresh set of clothes, not yet ruined from his current ‘project’ in the backyard. He had Malcolm help with his science homework and the rest would be forgotten about for the night. </p><p>      “Francis, are you coming back out? We have to cover it up with a tarp before Mom gets home.” Reese informed his older brother, holding prolonged eye contact until Malcolm began to complain about being interrupted. The blond swore Malcolm could spend a whole day complaining about anything. </p><p>     “I’m coming. I’ll talk later Malcolm.” Francis said, punching the brunette in the shoulder before jumping out the window. </p><p> </p><p>=•=</p><p> </p><p>     Francis was failing eighth grade, and he couldn’t tell his parents. Not after he broke the car windows last week. So he had to keep their minds off of his report card, or school at all. Maybe he could break his arm and get enough pity for them to forget. </p><p>     “Hey, Malcolm. Want to do something fun?” Francis asked his younger brother. Malcolm just looked up from his action figures and nodded enthusiastically. “Alright. Now, I want you to take this bat and hit me right here at my elbow. As hard as you can.”</p><p>     “I’m not doing that! Mom would totally kill me.” </p><p>     “No she won’t, we can say it was Reese.” </p><p>     “Fine.” Malcolm says, taking the bat and preparing to swing. Francis sticks his arm out and sucks in a sharp breath. “Just hold still.”</p><p>     “Okay.”</p><p>     “Boys, what do you~” Lois stopped, seeing Malcolm about to crush his brother's arm and Francis just standing there. “What the hell are you doing? Drop that bat, right now!”</p><p>     “Mom!”</p><p>     “I swear, I can’t leave you alone for a minute. Get over her now.” Lois commanded, watching the two boys line up in front of her. “Do you want to explain what you two were doing?”</p><p>     Instead of answering, Malcolm started mumbling to himself and Francis just stood there. “Francis told me to!”</p><p>     “You’ll regret that.”</p><p> </p><p>=•=</p><p> </p><p>     Francis may not be the nicest brother, but he at least tried. And he’ll keep trying until he can help his brothers do something other than get in and out of trouble.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>